The use of “hands on” displays at points of purchase is becoming increasingly popular, particularly in the electronics industry. Electronic devices are becoming more and more sophisticated, with a wide range of capabilities and features. Given the considerable potential investment in these devices, consumers have come to expect that they will be given the opportunity to hold and operate the devices as they would in the event of purchase. This is true of, among other types of products, cellular telephones, personal digital assistant devices (PDA's), digital music players, etc.
In many circumstances, it is impractical for potential customers to be given devices, one-by-one, and for any handling thereof to be monitored, as by a sales person. First of all, this practice could potentially require an inordinately large number of personnel, depending upon the number of products to be displayed and number of shoppers. Secondly, it is impractical to expect a sales force to keep track of all individual devices that are made available to prospective purchasers. This type of an environment is particularly attractive to thieves, recognizing that tracking of all devices made available to prospective consumers would be difficult, if not impossible. While safeguards have been devised at exits, through electronic sensing and/or strategic placement of security personnel and inspection of departing patrons, to a sophisticated thief, these normal safeguards may represent an insignificant impediment to theft.
Thus, the trend in the electronics industry has been to display most available products for inspection without requiring supervision by store personnel. Typically, security systems are employed in which sample articles are tethered to a display structure, such that prospective purchasers can handle each article within a range of the display structure corresponding to the length of the tether. The tether may include security sensors, which detect if the article is removed or the tether is cut. The security sensors are electrically connected via cabling back to a central security controller, which detects and responds to alarm conditions.
While tether-based security systems can be effective in permitting secure, unmonitored handling of portable articles, installation of such systems can be cumbersome, particularly to the extent that a number of tethered security displays may be utilized in various locations within a retail establishment, some or all of which locations may be remotely located from such an establishment's primary or desired location for security system controllers.